SaudiArabia has agreed to provide loan assistance of $30 million to help speed upNepal’s reconstruction efforts.

Thiswas agreed at meetings between the representatives of the Fund for Developmentof the Saudi government and officials of the National Reconstruction Authority(NRA).

Atthe meeting, the Saudi government officials requested NRA to propose the listof projects to be implemented during the reconstruction process. NRA DeputySpokesperson Bhishma Kumar Bhusal said the authority has proposed to utilisethe amount in the reconstruction of private houses, schools and healthinstitutions and have already written to the Ministry of Finance to holdfurther negotiations and finalise the agreement.

JointSecretaries Yam Lal Bhoosal and Krishna Dawadi and Undersecretaries Bhusal andBinu Bajracharya Kunwar took part in the meetings on behalf of NRA while thoserepresenting the Saudi government were chief engineer Abdullah M Al-Shoabi,regional manager of the operation department of the Fund for Development;Nassir AlKasabi, project manager; and Saeed AlMshaikhi, senior specialist.